Review: The Moscow Ballet dresses up its 'Nutcracker'

The Moscow Ballet's "Great Russian Nutcracker," now in performance at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.

We're up to our ears in "Nutcrackers" this December. The Twin Cities area has always hosted a fair number of holiday-time productions of the ballet built around Peter Tchaikovsky's evocative score and E.T.A. Hoffman's tale of a girl who dreams herself to a land of waltzing flowers and battling mice. But they seem particularly ubiquitous this year. So which one should you see?

Well, there's something to recommend about most of them, but I can tell you from attending Friday evening's opening performance of the Moscow Ballet's "Great Russian Nutcracker" at Minneapolis' Orpheum Theatre that there likely won't be another more lovely to watch. Gone are the threadbare costumes and bland visuals found on recent visits by this Russian company. This production adorns its dancers in imaginative attire, all as colorful as the eye-catching backdrops behind them.

While the dancing isn't as challenging or spectacular as in some versions I've seen, that's more on the choreographer than the dancers, who all executed their movements with grace, athleticism and impressive interplay. While the choreography is based upon the ideas of one of the 20th century's Russian masters, Vasili Vainonen, it feels as if the company's current director and ballet master are more concerned with sweeping you up in the bliss of beauty than giving you multiple adrenaline rushes.

And that's OK, especially when there's so much beauty to enjoy. It's present from the very beginning, as we head toward a Christmas party at the Stahlbaum family's palatial mansion. With Drosselmeyer, the maker of magical toys, directing the proceedings, we're introduced to all sorts of dancing automatons, one of which becomes the prized possession of our young heroine, named Masha in this version. Soon, her dreams take her to a land of dancing snowflakes and flowers, where an international octet entertains her and her nutcracker prince.

The Moscow Ballet version dispenses with anything remotely extraneous, keeping the story moving along briskly over the course of its two hours. But it's most captivating when Masha and her prince execute solo dances and a gorgeous pas de deux in the second act. Karyna Shatkovska is exceptional as Masha, every movement emanating elegance, control and confidence. As the nutcracker prince, Volodymyr Tkachenko is a fluid force, executing lifts and leaps with evident ease.

What wow-inducing moments there are usually come from the Chinese and Arabian couples, but this is a production that's more about joy than thrills. It keeps things relatively simple ... and simply lovely.